


Quiet and Safe

by TrackerKitsune



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Behavior, Garlean soldiers being Garlean soldiers, Gen, Male Viera, No Smut, Svali Lesrekta, TW: Slurs, Viera OC, like one mention of it, non-binary Viera babies, origin fic, the fuck is a pugnax anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:01:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22485238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrackerKitsune/pseuds/TrackerKitsune
Summary: The village was safe, usually - until the Garleans sent an entire cohort after one (1) magically skilled child.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Quiet and Safe

**Author's Note:**

> Svali Lesrekta is my other male Viera OC - if you don't like the idea of male viera existing in canon, don't read it.
> 
> This hit me like a train of inspiration while I was running around doing botany things ingame. 
> 
> My hands hurt now.
> 
> SQUARE GIB BUNBOYS AND BUNMEN.

Lesrekta is usually a bustling, vibrant village of Viera, constantly active be it trading with other villages or hunting in the vast Skatay Range. All seems well this day - business as usual, for its inhabitants. Hunters come and go, patrols are taken through the trees and the sky, and the young kits attend their training and lessons.

A huntress blares her horn as she lands atop a gryphon, the sound loud and clearly panicked. The village falls still, everyone holding their breath for what news she brings.

“Garleans!” Her cry is breathless. The village falls in frenzied moton. The older bucks have been sent away with the watchers already - one less set of children to worry about. All are accounted for with their teachers, sequestered in the huts furthest from the village entrance; and yet one woman’s eyes widen in horror. She rushes off through her sisters, hunting high and low for her kit.

“Where is Svali?!” She demands, stopping only when she opens a door to see the child in question’s deep red ears with their distinctively pale tips. 

The kit is wickedly skilled with magic already and, on the eve of them presenting as male or female, she will not risk them being taken for the Garleans’ conscripted army. Such power falling into the Empire’s hands would be twisted and forced into something dangerous, dark even.

“Svali!” She interrupts the lesson, startling all the kits in attendance and making the village priestess begin to object. “I’m sorry,” she apologizes breathlessly, scooping the youngster up into her arms, “I need to hide them!” Svali looks up, mismatched eyes wide in confusion.

“Mother, why did-” They’re pushed into a cupboard and squeak in surprise, finding themselves pressed as far back as possible.

“You have to stay silent until I come and let you out,” she instructs, cutting them off and shutting the door. “The Garleans would take you for your magic otherwise, my dear one.”

Svali goes obediently silent, listening to their mother’s footsteps get fainter. All of them have had it drilled into their heads how dangerous the soldiers are.

The quietness remains for a long time. They nearly relax, their ears lifting slightly in curiosity about what’s happening outside. A door slams nearby. There’s a lot of shouting - is that their father? He sounds _angry_ \- and their mother sounds worried.

“We had accurate information that your village is harbouring a powerful wielder of aether. You _will_ hand them over to the empire for training!”

“I’ve already told you, the mage has left!” The female Viera insists, “they’ve moved onto another village!” They’re inside the house? There must be a whole cohort outside to let the soldier make it this far; single soldiers have been killed for so little as wandering into the village borders before.

Svali shoves their wand out of sight, into the other side of the cupboard, and curls up tighter. So long as they stay quiet, the soldier won’t find them. Right?

Something snuffles at the cupboard and _barks_ . Svali goes rigid as the door is ripped from its hinges, finding themselves dragged out unceremoniously. The dog - by the forest they hope it’s a dog - barks again and snaps at them. They _scream_ , high pitched and terrified in the range only a Viera can hit, and pull their legs up tight against their body; away from the teeth. Their parents look more worried and angry than they’ve ever seen them.

Were they not quiet enough? Are they going to be taken away? Should they lash out with their magic - no, the soldier _wants_ that, wants to see what they can do. They’re shaken roughly by their captor, the Garlean probably expecting them to try and struggle once the shock has passed.

Svali brings their hands up to their collar, pulls it down a little, and bursts into tears.

The soldier scoffs in disgust and drops them without care, snapping an order at the dog - they’re still not sure that’s what it is - and storms out.

“Cohort, move out! There’s no mage here, just a snivelling, useless savage. Disappointing… Find that informant and get rid of them!”

The kit finds themselves pulled tightly into their mother’s arms and tucks their head under her chin, the woman cooing gentle praise at them for being so good and staying so quiet for so long. A large hand pets their ears and their father, so rarely seen or allowed in the village, smiles reassuringly and pulls both of them against his strong chest.

They will be safe for now.


End file.
